A day to Thai one on, defending Dylan, the creative process explored, slave trade in the classroom, and Patton Oswalt Radio.

1) A DAY TO THAI ONE ON

Happy New Year! Here’s a water balloon in the kisser. Thai New Year (April 13-15) involves the throwing of water. According to Wikipedia.

“Thais roam the streets with containers of water or water guns (sometimes mixed with mentholated talc), or post themselves at the side of roads with a garden hose and drench each other and passersby. This, however, was not always the main activity of this festival. Songkran was traditionally a time to visit and pay respects to elders, including family members, friends, neighbors, and monks.”

Duluth is into it!

The tradition also includes going back to one’s hometown to visit the elders. Here are some images from Thailand. Expand to full screen to experience all the this-is-better-than-getting-drunk-and-throwing-up goodness (sorry, iPad users, you won’t see this):

2) DEFENDING DYLAN

St. Paul native Jon Wiener, a history professor at the University of California Irvine, pens a vigorous defense of Bob Dylan against Maureen Dowd’s assertion that he’s a sellout because he submitted a set list for approval before his concert in China last week. Writing for The Nation, Wiener says there’s no evidence Dylan wanted to sing the more iconic protest songs of the ’60s over the objection of the rulers.

But look at what Dylan did sing in Beijing, starting with “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall”: that song describes a place “Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters/Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison/Where the executioner’s face is always well hidden.” You could call that a “protest song” if you wanted to.

He also sang “Ballad of a Thin Man”: “Something is happening here, but you don’t know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?” I would say that carries a pretty strong political charge.

And he sang “All Along the Watchtower”: “Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth/None of them along the line know what any of it is worth.” If you were looking for critical commentary on China today, this would work.

3) THE CREATIVE PROCESS EXPLORED

Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, hosts of public radio’s ‘Radiolab’, joined avant-cellist Zoë Keating for a discussion on the creative process.

4) FROM THE “WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?” FILE

As the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War approached earlier this month, a teacher in Virginia separated the white students from the black and mixed-race students and then held a mock auction in which the white kids could bid on the black kids.

“The lesson could have been thought through more carefully, as to not offend her students or put them in an uncomfortable situation,” the school’s principal said.

5) PATTON OSWALT RADIO

Around the time comedian Patton Oswalt was a guest on MPR’s Wits series, he taped a segment for The Current’s Theft of the Dial. He did a pitch-perfect example of a typical public radio announcer, which is the easiest way for anyone to get mentioned on 5×8.

Bonus: A Concordia College student has won the contest to guess the crest on the Red River in Fargo Moorhead. While the experts were predicting a near-record, Paul Miller didn’t think it would be a big deal. He uses an advanced technique not available to the experts, however. “Basically, I was pulling it out of thin air,” he tells the Fargo Forum.

TODAY’S QUESTION

President Obama’s plan to cut the deficit relies in part on changes in the tax code. He also says he will refuse any further extensions of tax cuts for the wealthy. Today’s Question: What changes would you make to the tax laws?

Talk of the Nation (1-3 p.m.) – First hour: What’s changed in Afghanistan?

Second hour: How Vietnam defined the lives of soldiers who fought a war there.

All Things Considered (3-6:30 p.m.) - Lanesboro, a southern Minnesota bluff town (pop. 724) is a summer tourism destination for cyclists, fishermen and paddlers. There’s one thing missing: a grocery store. When outside grocers declined to set up shop here, residents took matters into their own hands, MPR’s Elizabeth Baier will report.

As former Gov. Tim Pawlenty travels to key GOP nomination states, national and state Democratic groups are combining efforts to debunk Pawlenty statements and get out their message. The Minnesota DFL says it’s delighted to help its counterparts in other states counter Pawlenty’s massage. MPR’s Mark Zdechlik will have the story.

Nearly a year after the BP oil spill, much of the Gulf fishing industry is back open for business. The seafood has been declared safe to eat, but many customers are not yet convinced. Fishermen battle perceptions of oil-tainted seafood from the Gulf. NPR will have the story.

About the blogger

Bob Collins has been with Minnesota Public Radio since 1992, emigrating to Minnesota from Massachusetts where he was vice president of programming for Berkshire Broadcasting Company. Previously, he was an editor at the RKO Radio network in New York, and WHDH Radio in Boston. He is the founder of the MPR News’ website.

More serious now: Presumably, the teacher was attempting to teach history and compassion at the same time.

Perhaps it would have been more effective, without the risk of traumatizing little psyches,

if she had the kids with more melanin bid on the melanin-challenged little darlings.

mindtron

re: Dylan’s concert in Beijing

he hasn’t played much of his ‘protest music’ for years.

perhaps Maureen Dowd could have loked at his set lists from recent tours

before accusing him of changing his set list

Noelle

@ Jim: I was about to suggest the exact same thing. Might have been a more “teachable moment” that way.

Drae

What I would do to the tax code is abolish it completely and replace it with a national consumption tax (The Fair Tax). No more loop holes, no more IRS, and nothing could stimulate the American economy quicker.

A national sales tax would actually be more progressive than an income tax, and would place the burden of taxation on the wealthy. Conversely, it is payroll taxes that are regressive and hurt the working poor. The ultra-rich, who can afford to live on dividends and capital gains, do not pay income taxes – nor do they pay into Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid, but they’d pay in under the Fair Tax. Additionally – consumption rates are more stable as an economic indicator than wages.

And consider this – consumers already pay all the taxes anyways – as our price system has a hidden embedded tax cost of 22%.

So indeed – I would throw this tax baby out with the bath water, and replace it with a completely different system – one which is simple to understand and difficult to cheat.